River Top

I just can’t seem to stop making woven rayon tops! I feel like I go through phases in my sewing – a lot of knits and then a lot of wovens. We’re in a wovens phase currently! As soon as I saw the River top from Megan Nielsen it jumped right to the top of my To Sew list.

The Pattern

The River is a reversible raglan dress or top that can be made in woven or knit fabrics – which just totally boggles my mind! So many choices – I opted for a woven top version first. The pattern features loose fit, optional pockets and waist tie, as well as top and dress options. It can be worn with the V neck or the round neck side at the front.

It features bias binding for the neckline feature (which is becoming my favorite) and we know I’m a big fan of raglan sleeves from the Coram Top.

The Top

I sewed up a size small which was a perfect fit. I decided to sew up the top version even though it said that it was cropped. To combat that, I added on 3″ to the pattern as drafted, but after sewing up the side seams, I realized that that would make it WAY too long. I cut off two inches so in the end, I only ended up lengthening it by 1″. Megan Nielsen drafts her patterns for 5’9″ and I am only 5’4″ so the cropped nature was negated because of the lack of height!

I used bias binding as instructed in the pattern but wasn’t able to get a crisp v-neck. I have always struggle with v-neck bias bindings – the pattern includes really good instructions, but something just didn’t click in my mind.

What I think is most interesting about this top is the number of options – not just views but fabric choice options. I want to try out the knit version of this pattern because I’ve never sewn a pattern that has a woven and knit option in the same pattern piece.

I will say that while the top is reversible, when I put on the crew neck version side as the front, it looked to me like I was wearing the shirt backwards. So I think I’ll be wearing the v-neck in the front almost 100% of the time. It may be because I don’t really wear crew necks or my brain programed it as a v-neck – I’m not sure but something I wanted to mention.

I was asked on Instagram if I liked this raglan top better than the Coram Top and which one I would recommend. I really do like both and i think they have different places in my wardrobe. I do think i will find myself reaching more for the Coram Top, but I do like both. It’s important to note in that comparison that I would most likely never make the dress version of either pattern so I’m only discussing the top versions.

The Fabric

I’ve raved about Raspberry Creek Fabrics time and time again – but their fabrics are always the best. I used this rayon that I bought a while ago that I was saving for a fun drapey blouse!

I’m off to spend my weekend sewing up some more drapey blouses! I can’t seem to stop!

Comments

Your top is lovely Lara – I have this pattern winging it’s way to me now 🙂 I loved this pattern as soon as I saw it too – it’s another simple goodie that’s a blank canvas that you can really personalize and customize to be whatever you want.
I also wanted to mention that your social media buttons/slider down the left side of your page is cutting off 1/2 the first word of your sentences on the left making your blog post almost impossible to read because one has to guess that first word in each sentence. I know you don’t want to put this social media column down the right side due to potentially cutting into your advertising space but you might want to find a different spot to have it on your page otherwise people won’t be reading what you write. Just wanted to let you know 🙂

Thanks Kathleen!! I’m all about those simple patterns that are big wardrobe builders.

I’m not sure what’s going on with the slider. Are you reading on an iPad? I tested it on my computer, iPhone and iPad and my iPad is the only one that seems to do that (seems like a bug in the plugin or something). On the iPhone it puts the share buttons at the bottom. I’m looking to try to fix it, but a momentary fix is below the “crown” icon there should pop up two left facing arrows. You can click that to “hide” the icons. Hope that helps in the meantime!